Wow, sounds like kind of a mess, and a nightmare situation for a first time director. Also not great for the actors trying to distance themselves from Hanley's version. But the movie sounds intriguing to me, in either form I suppose, and I'd like to see what Johnny did. Even if the film becomes one...

Thanks for that. I heard and read about the Armenian Mafia many times during the years I lived in Southern California. They preyed on their own community a great deal and as the internet grew and became more common, they expanded their operations and worked with the Russian Mafia in the US to scam a...

My first 'spoon' of caviar was coaxed on me when I somewhere between 8-10 years of age. A cousin's wedding. I have the most vivid memory of the guy, all dressed in formal wedding wear holding the spoon, and telling me to try it and how I would love it, and I did. I even remember the glass bowls the...

My fish egg experience is of a different social strata. My dad loved to go fishing when I was a kid, and most of the time what he caught was "bullhead", a type of catfish. I was always delighted when one of them contained eggs! That was always my favorite part, fried along with the rest o...

Interesting. My mom would make buckwheat pancakes. Oh and you forgot the salmon caviar. I was shocked when I first saw it being sold in the supermarket. We used to buy jars of it in the sports store and used it as bait for catching trout.

Well my brother and I flew Aeroflot between Moscow and St. Petersburg and back in 2012. The flight was fine and the airline people and crew were pleasant. Of course that was before the friction arose between the US and Russia. We were welcomed all over Russia then. The major reaction was surprise th...

As an related aside, there was a news story the other day where somebody tried to sell 6 stolen paintings worth, I think they said, $12,000,000 to a pawnshop in Beverly Hills. The owner of the shop was suspicious and had the paintings checked and the guy trying to sell them was arrested. Of course h...

That is interesting. The change from AD to CE occurred a number of years ago and from what I have read was a response to the discoveries of documents that seemed to indicate Christ was born in 4 or 6 BC. I have seen CE used in dating in many places.

GG , I got the term "central university," as well as it's description and it's role, right off University of Oxford's website. But it is true that no one actually takes classes from the Central University. It sounds more like an administration building to me. So, is that what ...

Mmm why should he wish failure on a film because of a contract he signed years before this film version was even thought of? Seems a bit childish. Even if it is unfair it's not anyone who worked on this film's fault... And after reading the book and comparing it to the trailers, it seems that it's ...